


Drowning For That Touch

by Elkian (SuperImposed)



Category: Final Space (Cartoon)
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Are they attracted to each other? Most definitely. Did they frick-frack? Who knows., Everyone is touch-starved, Fluff, Gen, I didn't actually work it in but. Gary is def trans okay, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Minor Spoilers for Episode 6, Rated T bc they MAY have fricked but there's no way to be sure, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 09:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14787935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperImposed/pseuds/Elkian
Summary: Avocato is touch-starved, and Gary is friendly.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Shoutout to LizardScalesFairyTales (salamander-678 on tumblr) for beta reading and helping polish up the flow of this thing! :D
> 
> Read this on tumblr: https://elkian.tumblr.com/post/174372972036/drowning-for-that-touch-chapter-1-elkian

Avocato was used to a few things.

People swooning over him? Not all that unusual. Even without the rank of Second in Command to the Lord Commander himself, Avocato knew he was… pretty handsome, by quite a few species’ standards.

Attraction, recognition, respect as an authority figure, _fear_ … he was used to all of these.

He was **not** used to Gary.

Gary gave him none - or at least, less than half - of these. He clearly had no idea who or what Avocato was, had been. Even if he did, the mercenary slowly began to realize that Gary wouldn’t have really been afraid of him anyways. Let alone the borderline-sycophantic respect his position had once afforded him - Gary didn’t care about authority. Not even in a rebellious way.

And yeah, the human kept touching him, but he rapidly realized that it wasn’t an attempt to get into his space pants.

Well, he realized it after the time Gary had, after poking him in the head and nearly earning a concussion for it, _smiled_ at him, a big goofy  disbelieving grin, and said, “You’re really here.”

Gary was _lonely_. Gary was lonely and he’d thought, for those fraught first days, that Avocato was a hallucination brought on by isolation. Gary touched him because he wanted to reaffirm that Avocato was real.

It was strange - everything about the human was weird, his actions, his way of speaking, the way he’d wholeheartedly leapt to Avocato’s aid despite the danger. The way he slung an arm over his shoulder and spoke as if Avocato was the best friend he’d ever had.

Unusual. But not unwelcome.

It was- okay, to be honest? It was nice. Avocato was hecking _touch-starved_. And Gary didn’t want anything from him except for him to, well, be him. Be present and real.

 

\---

 

Which did not, of course, explain any of what he was doing. 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he muttered to himself, forehead almost touching the door. He could still back out. He could still-

Gary, leaping to his aid. Gary, promising to help him find his son and _meaning it_.

Gary’s reassuring hand on his shoulder, giving him strength when his heart wanted to break. Gary telling him “We’ll find him” with more conviction than he had any right to.

“Gary? Can I come in?”

There were a few seconds where he thought the human was already asleep. Then the door slid open, Gary still fumbling on pants (that were backwards; Avocato declined to comment) and grinning at him, and he realized he was grinning back.

“Avo-ca- _to!_ What is up, my good dude?” Gary said, trying to make finger guns at him and mostly getting tangled up in his pants. “What can Captain Gary do for you this fine night?”

“Gary, as I have reminded you every day of your sentence, you are not and have never been the captain of this ship.”

“Thank you, HUE, that’ll be all for tonight,” he said, to cut off Gary’s incoming tirade.

“Yes! That will be _all_ , HUE,” Gary echoed, trying to clap his hands and nearly tripping himself - Avocato stepped in to steady him.

Gary grinned up at him, cheeks almost brushing his chest before the human found his feet again. Maybe realizing just how close they’d gotten - and wasn’t that the truth - he stepped back and cleared his throat.

“So! You wanted to see me?” And while Gary was _entertaining_ in his monologues, Avocato could admit to himself that he often preferred the quieter Gary, the one who thought before he spoke. That Gary said things that he’d never expect and absolutely meant them, and that was kind of mind-blowing.

“Yeah,” he replied, voice just as soft. “I was...” Hoo boy, how to put this? Avocato rubbed the back of his head as he hesitated. Leader of the largest fleet in universal history and _this_ was what tripped him up. “I was feeling kinda lonely. Thought maybe there was room for two on that bunk.”

Because, as HUE had said on no uncertain terms, Gary _had_ to sleep in his own room during his sentence. But there was no ruling against Avocato sharing with _him_ , not officially.

And despite the mild funk of a space-sealed bunkroom that’d been in use for five years, it wasn’t nearly the disaster he’d feared. Mooncake shifted a little in their nest, jury-rigged out of several of Gary’s spare uniforms, and he waved to the lil guy before returning his attention to Gary.

Who was staring at him, with a conflicted expression on his face. “Soooo… when you say you want to sleep with me-” he hadn’t said that, but he’d meant it, _whatever_ , “-do you mean, like….”

With someone else, in another life, Avocato would be spouting a flirtatious one-liner with his most sultry voice and best bunkroom eyes.

Here, he laid a hand on Gary’s shoulder and smiled reassuringly. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, man.”

Gary searched his face for a moment before breaking into a smile he’d seen rarely, over his shoulder and in peripheral vision. Bright and enthusiastic and a little wet at the eyes. The human’s flesh hand closed over his wrist and he backed towards the little bed, grin growing, and Avocato couldn’t help but do the same. It felt like a lifetime since he last did- any of this, the uncertain but anticipatory grin on his face and rush in his veins as a partner, any partner, pulled him towards their bed, both a little unsure of themselves.

The last time he could remember had been a few months after his son was born, before his partner- Avocato shook that thought away, but Gary had, of course, seen. His new hand carefully cupped the mercenary’s cheek.

“Doing okay there, bud?” and he hadn’t even noticed he was tearing up until that metal thumb, with clumsy care, wiped the moisture away.

“Yeah,” oh geez, his voice sounded rough. “Yeah. Just reflecting a bit. Been a little while.” He smiled, comforting rather than seductive, and laid his hand over the one on his wrist. “I’m still with you.”

“Hell yeah.”


	2. Chapter 2

It’d been such a long time since he woke up like this. Feeling the rhythm of another pulse against his, almost matching breaths with the person in his arms. Face feeling slack from not scowling, the faint tickle of his partner’s hair and exhalations against his chest, their legs tangled with his.

It wasn’t perfect - nothing ever was. His arm was falling asleep under Gary’s torso (and Gary’s robot arm under him pinched at pockets of fur), that tickling put him on the verge of sneezing, the warmth between them verging on uncomfortable.

It wasn’t perfect, but it was good. He felt… peaceful. Safe. More so than he had in a long, long time. When he was more awake he’d feel guilty about that, taking peace when Little Cato was still at risk unknown, far from his reach, but just for a moment he wanted to savor the feeling. Before HUE woke them up and Gary broke the silence with his bright chatter.

(Before Gary pressed the issue and started asking what EXACTLY they were to each other now...)

Avocato let his eyes slide open, wishing not for the first time to be planetside, let the sunlight filter in soft to illuminate the room at its slow, gentle pace.

To his mild surprise, Gary was already awake, looking at him just like he was looking at Gary. Soft and half-lidded and sleepily happy.

“Hey, buddy,” Gary’s right hand slowly traced the edge of his jaw, tickling pleasantly in his fur. “Sleep good?”

Avocato gave in and pulled him closer, burying his face in the human’s neck and relishing the renewed embrace being returned. “Yeah. Yeah, I did.”


End file.
